Obama says he won’t rule out any type of help for Iraq

JeffreySparshott

Reuters

U.S. President Barack Obama (right) speaks next to Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

President Barack Obama on Thursday said he hasn’t ruled out any type of U.S. assistance to Iraq, where Sunni militants have seized control of some major Iraqi cities and have vowed to march on areas revered by Shiite Muslims.

“What we have seen over the last couple of days indicates the degree to which Iraq is going to need more help--more help from us and more help from the international community,” Obama said from the Oval Office following a meeting with Australia Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

“My team is working around the clock to identify how we can provide the most effective assistance to them,” Obama said. “I don’t rule out anything.”

Meantime, White House spokesman Jay Carney said the U.S. was weighing steps to assist Iraq, including the possibility of air strikes. But he said officials aren’t contemplating sending ground troops.

This week, the Iraqi cities Mosul and Tikrit fell to the rebel group Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham. The Sunni insurgents’ offensive in the past three days has sparked the biggest crisis Iraq has faced since it plunged into sectarian violence after the U.S.-led invasion of the country in 2003.

On Thursday, Kurdish forces took control of a provincial capital in the oil-rich north.

In Washington, Obama said: “There will be some short-term immediate things that need to be done militarily. Our national security team is looking at all the options.”

But the U.S. president also exhorted the Shiite-dominated government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to seek out a political compromise that allows moderate Shiites and Sunnis to work against the jihadists. “This should be also a wake-up call for the Iraqi government,” Obama said.

Obama said U.S. actions should help ensure that extremists don’t gain a permanent foothold in Iraq or Syria, from which they could launch attacks against countries including the U.S. and Australia.

“Both our countries are potentially threatened by jihadists--and freedom fighters, as they call them--that are going into Syria, getting trained in terrorist tactics and then potentially coming back to our countries and could end up being a significant threat to our homeland as well,” Obama said.

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